Well it is that time already, though maybe a little bit early being as it was on the 10th of December. Anyway, Christmas pageant at the church time! And the first year where the twins were too old to participate as Sunday School kids. The cut off at our church is when they enter Confirmation and this is their first year of that (and it seems to be going well, they do enjoy class). Instead the two of them assist different Sunday School classes each Sunday and occasionally acolyte.

This Sunday lined up nicely as it was also the Sunday that Gavin was scheduled to acolyte for the same service. Both he and Zander turned down the opportunity to read scripture for the pageant. This was Gavin’s second time acolyting which was worrying enough for him. Though he did a great job. Zander did not feel confident that he could read the scriptures properly with only a week or so notice. He tends to rush when he reads and make word errors when public speaking. Instead he assisted with the practice the day before and dressing up the kids in their costumes. I am so proud of them for stepping up and assisting with the Sunday School at our church.

Now for the other 3. This year Trinity turned down the role of Mary. Not only has she been Mary a few times, but this year there was lines and some singing solos. Nope, not happening. Instead she and Echo were angels. So we pulled out the special dresses one more time and they looked absolutely adorable.

Emanuel’s role of choice has to be one of the 3 Wise Men. We have lost a lot of our boys in Sunday School, or they were not there on Sunday so all there was was Joseph and one Wise Man, but I think they carried it off.

The kids did a special Cherub choir practiced song along with the other musical numbers. It was all rather adorable. I have a couple videos of the singing you can watch.

Ken and I managed to get a few videos taken. Though his phone randomly overheated so not everything is shown. Enjoy!!

After church they were give their yearly snack bag. The younger 3 were sweet enough to share with their big brothers. This whole too old for a program thing is something we are still working on getting used to. Zander sat with me during the service since his job was done once the kids were dressed. We worked on his sermon notes together. That one on one time is so special.

The children did a great job of sharing the message of Jesus’ birth! it is a yearly tradition I will miss once the rest of the kids are too old to participate! I even got in a few pictures myself. 

I bought the silk shawl at Renaissance Festival

And here are the rest of the group shots. A small but great group.

December 5-8

Here I am writing about Thanksgiving well into Advent but this year the two were so close together! Trinity and Emanuel had their coffee filtre turkeys to finish with Daddy after all. You can make one  yourself thanks to Peapod Labs HERE.

We brought out our Little People Nativity set. Echo is enamoured with the angel. Apparently this one is ready to ride!

Of course we had our advent calendar and a craft to add to the fun! What we can do with markers, popsicle sticks, paper and glue!!! I think Trinity did a great job.

Then the boys had the exciting completion of their Minnesota lapbook plus extras. Only took FOREVER for us to get it done and together. Of course I saved the resources in a separate blog entry HERE. We did a mini lapbook and then went from there. I hope the little nuggets of facts and truths we found will stick in our minds for at least a little time. It was fun learning more about the state we now call home.

We have also started using Trinity’s daily reading as family story time. Every time we read one of her Christmas themed books (or watch a Christmas movie) we draw a group picture that will go in our Christmas binder!

We ended our school week with a paper craft that I picked up last year at an absolute steal. This was making a fancy paper gingerbread house with accessories.

It was the first Saturday of the month so of course the kids headed over to Home Depot for free craft time. Ken also signed them up for a special extra craft on the 21st.

Emanuel drew a wonderful Christmas themed dinosaur page to send up north to a special someone.

Of  course Sunday brought Sunday School. Cold Cold Cold.

And then Baba and Ken put up the yard decoration that Nana found at Fleet Farm. Very pretty.

Later in the evening we had Facetime with Aunty Xinny, Alex, Izaac and Isabella. It was WILD!!!

We ended our evening with decorating the new 8 foot tall tree. The ornaments this year are from our stash. Not ALL of them but soe many memories and old favourites. The kids had a blast showing them to Nana and Baba.

Christmas is very apparent in the house now. And after a busy weekend it feels so much more real

December 19-20

Well we really are running out of days to get things done now! Wednesday meant that one day closer to the end of the week and for the kids, really, one day more EXCITED! We have had lots of packages coming into the house but now they are coming in wrapped and going right under the tree!!!

Of course with the gingerbread theme we had to do up the last of the foam shapes. Only ladies left but each one was an individual work of art.

Very individual creations!

Such expressions

Trinity worked with some gingerbread men to create a name banner to go on our cabinet in the boot room that is all decked out with cards and other pieces of themed art. She is really a pro at writing her name now.

T R I N I T Y

The kids were right there to help continue decorating the house. There was garland and blinky lights to put on the banister and the foam houses to set out. Oh and a fiber optic tree that is so pretty when the sun goes down!

Decorating the house

We opened our very first Christmas present. A vintage Christmas book sent from a dear friend in the UK (thank you Josephine ). They tore right into the paper and we had to read a story RIGHT AWAY! Though Emanuel saved a teddy bear from the wrapping to paste in his journal.

First present

Ready.. set.. unwrap

Vintage stories!!

Emanuel with his piece of wrapping paper

We got letters from Santa thanks to a wonderful local program and 5.00. Each of the 5 was different as well! It was so much fun reading each one out loud and seeing the excitement on their faces.

Santa letters

Thursday was VERY exciting as a HUGE box showed up from South Carolina, that’s right – presents from Grandma and Grandpa Reinsch and Aunty Kat and her husband. Our tree is looking so full thanks to so many lovely packages arriving in the mail! The kids are so happy and sure that Christmas WILL be here and wonderful.

The kids popping the bubble wrap

The twins worked on an exercise where they combined words to create a longer word. Like book and case. They did a GREAT job!

I love it when they work together

There was another wonderful drawing to be done on Art for Kids… an angel. As you can tell from the picture, Gavin drew one just for Trinity!

Such a wonderful drawing

We had another chapter in our vintage book… The Christmas Snowman this time. I am loving the stories and the pictures and the kids are so happy with their very first gift.

We also finished our gingerbread themed poster that I picked up at JoAnn’s earlier. I think they did a great job working together. It is tucked away in their special binder full of all our Christmas work! I have already started thinking about next year… I am thinking the history of Christmas and a super Jesus centered learning. This year I really focused on Santa and how he WILL find us here… some stability in a year of changes…

Lovely

One more regular week day until we hit the weekend and the final Christmas countdown. I think Ken and I are finally done our shopping. We even found a pretty little dress at Target for Christmas day for Echo… ON SALE! With most of our immigration questions answered and forms filled we wait on a passport renewal and then do the big move – MAIL IT! So after Christmas… but before that, Saturday and onward I get to make my brain relax… I am going to make this an amazing Christmas for us all.

Our darling girls